1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading device in which an image, recorded in a film, for example, is read by a line sensor, and is transmitted to a computer so that the image is indicated by a display device connected to the computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known an image reading device in which a pre-scanning operation is performed prior to a regular scanning operation. In the pre-scanning operation, an image recorded in a film is read by a line sensor with a relatively coarse pitch and pixel data corresponding to the image are transmitted to a computer, for example, so that the image is indicated on a surface of a display device of the computer. By observing the image, which is obtained by the pre-scanning operation and indicated by the display device, it can be determined whether the regular scanning operation is to be performed.
In the regular scanning operation, the image recorded in the film is read with a pitch finer than that of the pre-scanning operation, and pixel data of the read image are transmitted to the computer. Namely, in the regular scanning operation, the same operations as those of the pre-scanning operation are performed, except that the reading pitch is relatively fine in the regular scanning operation.
The transmittance time, for which the pixel data corresponding to the image are transmitted to the computer, is longer than a reading operation carried out using the line sensor. Therefore, during the transmitting operation, the executions of the other processes are restricted, and thus a high operating efficiency of the image reading device is not possible.